Standard facsimile devices which operate only as facsimile machines connected directly to a telephone line are rapidly being replaced by devices which combine facsimile and/or digital scanning, copying and printing in one single unit. Note, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,345 to Paradise; U.S. Pat. No. 3,597,071 to Jones; U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,218 to Matsumoto; U.S. Pat. No. 5,021,892 to Kita, et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,244 to Andrews, et al. One class of these devices may conveniently be directly connected to a personal computer or workstation to provide printing, and to a telephone access line to provide facsimile transmission and receipt.
In the case of a facsimile transmission, a data coupler or line interface and modem is required to access a telephone line and transmit an appropriate sequence of tones to "dial" a desired phone number. In the case of many private PBX's or network provider services (hereinafter "PBX"), upon dialing a desired number, the PBX often requires the entry of a charge code, typically responding to the call with a tone or message indicating the charge code requirement. This charge code ensures that a user has the right to access the telephone system in the manner intended by the dialed phone call, and is also commonly used to identify the user for billing purposes.
In a common PBX system, for the entry of an outgoing facsimile phone number, users anticipate the requirement of the charge code, and may enter the phone number in the format XXX-XXX-XXXXpauseXXXX. A pause button or function is provided at the facsimile machine which causes the modem to insert a time delay of a predetermined duration into the generation of tones for dialing in a sequence that separates the phone number from the charge code. Thus, the PBX 1) "hears" the phone number, 2) generates a charge code request tone, and 3) hears the charge code. The transaction appears to the PBX as if the number and charge code had been manually entered. In many devices including facsimile functions, this is the only way to enter the charge code, i.e., upon entering a phone number, there is no way to manually add a dialing sequence corresponding to the charge code.
Charge codes are desirably highly customized. In many organizations, each telephone user will have a charge code. In other organizations, charge codes are assigned to projects or clients or departments for specific billing purposes. Problems arise in the current charge code dialing scheme in two areas: one touch dialing and activity reports.
One touch dialing or speed dialing or quick dialing, is a highly desirable feature in a telephone based system, because it enables a user to select a pre-programmed telephone number with the entry at a key pad or user interface of a one or two digit dialing code entry. The entry of the dialing code provides a pointer to a location in memory where a full telephone number resides. For commonly dialed phone numbers, this features avoids the need to look up the number, or dial the relatively large number of digits comprising a phone number. In the previously described charge code situation, a pre-programmed number conveniently includes appropriate pauses and charge codes. For convenience these pre-programmed numbers are limited to a relatively small number.
Unfortunately, once a quick dial phone number is programmed with a charge code, every user is enabled to use that charge code, even if the use of the charge code would be inappropriate. For example, a law firm may have a quick dial entry for another law firm. The charge codes should reflect project or client codes. In the described quick dial situation, however, this will not be true.
Activity reports are often desired in a facsimile system to maintain records of facsimile transmission times, durations, destinations and failure codes. It is extremely common for these reports to automatically print out after a preselected number of transmissions, or to be printable upon demand. Unfortunately, these activity reports consider the telephone number to include every digit dialed at the entry of the number. Thus, the charge codes are included in the reports. It would be quite simple for a dishonest user to walk up to any facsimile machine and gather charge codes for later illegal use. The user could accomplish a facsimile transmission with the use of an inappropriate charge code, and thus corrupt the objectives of the charge code.
References disclosed herein are incorporated by reference for their teachings.